Sedona Red Recap: D-backs suffer sixth straight loss after squandering early lead

With any luck, the second half of the 2016 season will be better for the Arizona Diamondbacks than the first half was.

It hasn’t started that way though.

Jarrett Parker homered, Conor Gillaspie delivered three hits and Johnny Cueto settled down after a difficult first inning as the San Francisco Giants knocked off the D-backs 6-4 in front of 24,859 fans at Chase Field on Friday night.

Shelby Miller took the loss for Arizona, dropping his record to 2-8 on the season. He made it through the first three innings relatively unscathed, but San Francisco was able to string together hits for two runs in both the fourth and sixth innings. That ultimately proved to be enough.

If the D-backs have any hope of climbing back into playoff contention, this is probably the time when they have to make a run. They entered the evening 6.5 games back of the second wild-card spot in the NL, and Friday’s outing marked the first of 12 straight games against NL West opponents.

The problem is, six of those 12 games are against the Giants – owners of the second-best record in the league. And nine of the contests are at Chase, where Arizona is now 13-29 this season.

THE GOOD

-With one out and Gillaspie at third in the top of the second inning, Nick Ahmed fielded a sharp grounder off the bat of Grant Green then – instead of going to first for the sure out – fired home to get Gillaspie at the plate. At the time, it preserved a 3-1 lead for the Diamondbacks.

-Jake Lamb continued his torrid pace, depositing his 18th homerun of the season into the right field seats in the third inning. He’s now batting .392 (20-for-51) over his last 14 games.

-Paul Goldschmidt has reached base safely in 25 of his last 27 games against San Francisco.

-Jean Segura has reached base safely in 20 of his last 21 games overall.

THE BAD

-Miller did fairly well getting the first two outs most innings, but struggled to get that third out to kill off the Giants’ chances to score.

-After starting their most recent road trip with seven wins in eight games, the D-backs have now dropped six in a row.

-Arizona nearly rallied in the ninth but, with runners on first and third – and no outs, Yasmany Tomas hit into a double play. After Phil Gosselin walked, Peter O’Brien struck out looking to end the game.

STAT OF THE GAME

2-41: That’s Arizona’s record when trailing after 7.0 innings this season. A ninth inning rally in this one could have been exactly what they needed to start the second half off with some positive energy.

HE SAID IT

“As far as confidence, it’s there. I’ve been doing this for almost four years now and, obviously, I haven’t had this rough of a year yet but you swallow it and, like I said, you go on to the next one… That’s baseball.” – Shelby Miller

NOTED

-Tuffy Gosewisch was recalled from Triple-A Reno prior to Friday’s game.

-The first 20,000 fans in the door on Saturday will receive a Goldschmidt bobblehead.

UP NEXT

These two teams will be right back at it again on Saturday night at Chase Field. Patrick Corbin takes the mound for Arizona, while San Francisco counters with Jeff Samardzija. First pitch is set for 7:10, with pregame coverage beginning at 6:30 on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

Corbin (4-6) is sporting a 4.99 ERA on the year after a tough outing at Coors Field on June 26. He surrendered 6 earned runs over 4.1 innings in that one, but had allowed just 11 total runs over 26 innings in June prior to that outing.

He’s already faced the Giants once this season, yielding 3 runs on 9 hits over 6.1 innings in a no-decision back on May 14.

Samardzija (8-5) was cruising right along for most of the year – until his last two starts. In those games, however, he was touched up for 12 runs on 14 hits over a combined 9 innings. Despite those numbers, his ERA is still a respectable 3.91 overall though. And he was pretty dominant in his last meeting with the D-backs, giving up just 1 run in 8 innings back on May 13.

Follow @LukeLapinski